Mohamed Larbi Rahhali
Mind Moves Matter
5 June–30 September 2015
L’appartement 22
an independent space for art
279 avenue Mohamed
V 10 000 Rabat
T + 212 6 25 93 92 58
www.appartement22.com
www.radioapartment22.com
Curated by Natasha Ginwala
Mind Moves Matter is the first exhibition showcasing a lifetime of thinking and work by the Tétouan-based artist Mohamed Larbi Rahhali. By animating forms of the everyday and through an insightful understanding of time that is at once deeply personal yet also extending to the planetary scale, Larbi reveals the practice of life as a constant experiment in art making.
In a Gesamtkunstwerk bringing together conceptual, scientific and artisanal vocabulary, we witness the minute interiors of a matchbox, the motions upon a self-made sundial and the intricate expanse of fishnets that encompass knowledge of the sea.
Mohamed Larbi Rahhali lives and works in Tétouan. His recent group exhibitions include Here and Elsewhere, New Museum, New York (2015), Before our eyes, MACBA, Barcelona (2015) Sous nos yeux. Part 2, Kunsthalle, centre d’art contemporain Mulhouse (2013), Sentences on the banks and other activities, Darat al Funun, Amman (2010). He took part at the workshop 3RS Maroc led by Seamus Farrell and organized by L’appartement 22 between Fes, Rabat and Tétouan (2007). Mind Moves Matter at L’appartement 22 is the first comprehensive solo exhibition of the artist.
Natasha Ginwala is an independent curator, researcher, and writer. She is curatorial advisor and public programmes curator, My East is Your West at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015), and was a member of the artistic team at the 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (2014). Her recent work also includes Corruption: Everybody Knows… for e-flux journal‘s special issue, Supercommunity, at 56th Venice Biennale, the multi-part curatorial project Landings (with Vivian Ziherl), 2013–ongoing, as well as The Museum of Rhythm at Taipei Biennial 2012 (with Anselm Franke). Ginwala regularly contributes to artist publications and periodicals.
L’appartement 22 was founded in 2002 by Abdellah Karroum following a series of gatherings, discussions and expeditions. L’appartement 22 has played a fundamental role in the transformation of the art scene in Morocco for the last decade, working with a generation of artists addressing major issues of gender and freedom of expression in a region where politics, religion and economy are often exclusive items of traditional and post-independence power.
The majority of L’appartement 22′s projects are conceived specifically for the space, primarily in the context of artists’ residencies. This space for debate interrogates recent art historical discourses and the social, political, and cultural contexts of their emergence. The space also includes documentation and archives on curatorial methodologies and artistic projects. It provides artist dossiers and information on professional opportunities for researchers, art professionals and students. Archival material is available on Adel Abdessemed, Mustapha Akrim, Yto Barrada, Ninar Esber, Patricia Esquivias, Otobong Nkanga, Catherine Poncin, Younès Rahmoun, among others. The Curatorial Delegation associates an open group of artists who use L’appartement 22 as a space for physical display and a place of discursive production.
L’appartement22 expanded its formats in 2007 with the first art radio in Morocco, R22, and a workshop in Fez, Lot 219. The R22 radio programs have been recorded live in Brussels, Gwangju, Marrakech, Medellin, Palermo, Cotonou, Venice and the Rif Mountains. In 2011, the exhibition space in Rabat invited the international members of the Curatorial Delegation to curate its programs, using the physical space for encounters in dialogue with art projects produced around the world. In 2013, the Rif Residence was created for artists, writers, and curators, following the Expeditions Le Bout Du Monde (The End of The World) organized since 2000 in the Rif.
